A journey from over-abundance to simplicity. A hoarder shares some secrets of this misunderstood disease, with a visual guide along the way.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Dropping the Burden

On Thursday, a great power whirled into my garage and set free many burdens. Well, her name's Clutter Buddy and her positive energy and support allowed me to do what I've been preparing myself emotionally to do for a while now (how do we count 'a while'? all my life? since last July when I documenting started this journey? since last week when I dared my friend J to see who could let go of more treasures?).

We'd planned this attack on my garage. As I mentioned above, I'd been emailing my friend J, who also has an eBay dream and a plethora of possessions, about working together to let go. He's been actually listing items for sale, something I haven't done for almost two years. So, in that sense, he's ahead. For me, the victory is in realizing that I don't need to keep these things, that I don't need what they represent--a source of income--because I have more options than eBay. If I can let go, then I can free up space for other, more useful, more usable if you will, sources of money and power (that is, belief that I can achieve, that I have value in and of myself, without need for externals). As Karen Kingston describes so eloquently in her invaluable book, Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui, if your home is full, there is no room for anything else to come in. New thoughts, new money, new people, all are kept out because there is no room for them. Clearing out the old, the stuck, the stale, is the only way to let fresh energy into your life.

Well, you've seen the photos. The stacks actually grew after these pictures were taken. I emptied eleven (see above photo) 18 gallon Rubbermaid bins of their contents, all of it originally supposed to be sold on eBay, and donated the lot to Goodwill. Yes, I made my usual itemized list for tax purposes. CB had backed her van up to the garage and we filled the back of it with bags and boxes of items. I won't go into detail (oh, maybe I will, we'll see if I'm up to reliving it) about the items themselves. Suffice to say for now, that they would have been a challenge to list and package and that I hope they find good new homes via the local Goodwill store.

I do the same thing, in a smaller way: I'll post on craigslist, get a few bucks. In the meantime the piles get added to, and added to. When I finally realize that I'm NOT going to post, and give it to the first thrift store I can, it's SO NICE to have that empty, clear, open space again.